Proving Yourself: Addressing the Refugee Identity Crisis with Bayesi-Chain Probability & Digital Footprints

Abstract

In the last decade the total global number of displaced refugees has increased significantly and consistently. This has been further inflated by 5 million Syrians who were externally displaced in 2017. Often these individuals flee their home countries without identification documentation and thus find it extremely difficult to verify their true identities when they attempt to reconstruct their lives in their new homelands. The requirement for identification documentation is a constant element of daily life within modern societies. This functions to both protect the rights of individuals and also the entities and organisations they interact with. The need to provide identification documentation can present significant challenges for displaced people trying to reconstruct their lives. In the digital age where individuals are creating large digital footprints, online accounts and activities can prove to be a valuable source of information that may contribute to ‘proof’ that an asserted identity is genuine. Online social contextual data - or ‘Digital identities' - pertaining to real people are built over time and bolstered by associated accounts, relationships and attributes. This data is difficult to fake and therefore may have the capacity to provide proof of a ‘real’ identity. This paper outlines the design and initial development of a solution that could potentially allow refugees who are resettling to build a digital identity document over time as they settle in a new land, without the need for multiple sources of traditional identity documentation. This solution utilizes data sourced from an individual's digital footprint to assess the likelihood that it pertains to a ‘real’ identity. This is achieved through application of machine learning and Bayesian probabilistic modelling techniques. Where identity sources are considered reliable, a secure and intelligent digital identification artefact will be created. This artefact will emulate a blockchain-inspired ledger and may subsequently be used to prove identity in place of traditional paper documentation.